


The Measure of a Mission

by Aegis_Di



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Biological Warfare, Death, F/F, F/M, Gang Violence, Homelessness, Hurt/Comfort, Inspired by Zootopia (2016), LGBTQ Character, M/M, Madness, Magic, Mental Health Issues, Night Howlers, Other, Riots, Sexual Violence, Terrorism, Zootopia Police Department
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:40:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23134066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aegis_Di/pseuds/Aegis_Di
Summary: This is the sequel to The Measure of a Mammal, my first epic work set in Magic205's Zootopia AU.Set in the current day, and after 3 long years lost on the streets of Zootopia after the conclusion of Dawn Bellwether's mad reign, Judy Hopps has been found by the one Mammal she never expected to see again - her favorite Cliffside Doctor, Dr Hugo Wiedii.  He's saved her life, and now he has to come with grips with the journey Judy has made to reach him.  She's encountered old lovers, new friends, and felt the touch of forgotten enemies.  But now a new crisis rocks the streets of Zootopia, and all that stands between the city and chaos is the sanity of one broken bunny.Also included are flashback chapters that deal with Judy's attempt 4 years ago to penetrate Dawn Bellwether's mad plot to destroy and enslave predators, all in the name of personal power.  The rabbit will have to endure hardships and madness to gain Dawn's trust so that she may engineer the mad lamb's downfall.  She's alone, with no friends and no allies, thrust in amoung Zootopia's mightest mammals, her only weapons her wits and her unshakeable faith.  She will prevail.  She must.The alternative is to horrible to contemplate.
Relationships: Dawn Bellwether/Judy Hopps, Finnick & Judy Hopps, Finnick & Nick Wilde, Judy Hopps & Nick Wilde, Judy Hopps/Hugo, Judy Hopps/Skye, Nick Wilde & Wolford
Comments: 32
Kudos: 19





	1. Thursday Morning:  Doorways

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Measure of a Mammal](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191682) by [Aegis_Di](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aegis_Di/pseuds/Aegis_Di). 



> This is the second act of the Legacy Of Latrans, the first act being The Measure of a Mammal. For those of you familiar with the story, this act will be darker and more violent, both in the current day and in the flashback chapters. Judy is going to have to endure her own nightmare to prevent a catastrophe of biblical proportions, and it's not going to be pretty. Let's hope she has the strength. 
> 
> For those unfamiliar with the story, I've included a short summary of The Measure of a Mammal in the beginning of this chapter. Next chapter will be a flashback chapter, and it will also have a short summary of the flashback chapters from The Measure of a Mammal.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Across Town, John Wyeld and his unwilling ward, Joshua Bittersnow have arrive at New Horizon's laboratory, where John contemplates his hatred of the place and Joshua contemplates the coming consequences of his actions. At the Tundra Town Hospital, Nick and Wolfard visit with an injured Clawhauser, and they try to debrief him about his encounter with a mad goat. And back at Hugo's place in Snowy Hills, he tries to deal with Judy's surprise admission: She is the heir that Dawn had bequeathed her empire to.

**_Previously on[The Measure of a Mammal](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191682/chapters/45622561)_ **

_Once, there was a rabbit from Bunny Burrow who had become the first rabbit officer to serve in the Zootopia Police Department. As part of a desperate gamble to prove her worth to her police chief, she took on an impossible case and with it an impossible partner. But with luck, skill, and the help of that same partner, the sly con-fox Nick Wilde, she solved her case and saved her city._

_Four years later she would embark on a similarly desperate case with her partner in law-enforcement, the re-minted Officer Nick Wilde. They would be pitched against a zoophobic cult that sought to bring about the end of all mammalian civilization, and even thought they were aided by mystic Cheryl Silverheels in the final epic battle against the cult’s messianic coyote leader, dark sorcerer Carl Latrans, they would loose everything._

_In desperation, as she watched her partner spill his bleeding guts out all over the floor, Judy would try a desperate gamble only to be blasted to ash by forces beyond her comprehension. But even in death all was not lost, for the Divines would interceed and offer Judy a Faustian bargain: The life of her precious fox and the lives of all she loved and held dear in exchange for a lifetime of suffering. Judy took that bargain gladly, and ended the threat to her loved ones by merging her desceased soul with her nine year old self and assassinating Carl Latrans decades before before he could destroy all of mammalia (please see Magick205 excellent[Debts Unpaid](https://www.deviantart.com/art/Debts-Unpaid-A-Zootopia-Story-624298970) on Deviantart)._

_This is the story of what comes afterwards._

_It’s been 19 years since she killed Carl Latrans by putting a bullet in him. Her journey of suffering has lead her through juvinile incarceration and eventually, madness at the Cliffside Insane Asylum. On her 18 th birthday she is released to make her own way through an uncaring world. Unable to adapt to life of peace in Bunny Burrow, she drifts westward, and lives happily for a time on the Pacifica coast. But after the death of a dear friend, Judy leave the ocean behind and journey eastward to face her destiny at the paws of Dawn Bellwether. _

_Judy is 28 now and living as a homeless and slightly mad rabbit on the streets and canals of the rain forest district. After encountering Nick Wilde Monday evening out for a stroll with his mate and kit, Judy could no longer take the heartbreak and suffering that the Divines had promised her, and she runs off into the night. Soaking wet, she arrives in Tundra Town in the dead of night, and begins to feel the effects of the cold. Delirious, she wanders through the alley ways muttering to herself, slowly dying of exposure and hypothermia. She is rescued by an old doctor of hers, a margay forest cat named Dr Hugo Weidii, who was a doctor of her's at Cliffside where she spent years as a patient. Shocked to find her on the Zooptopian streets after 13 years of fruitless searching, he struggles to save her life ([Ch 1](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191682/chapters/45622561))._

_He enlisted the aid of his neighbors Dale and Meredith to assist him in saving her life that evening. Once she was stabilized, he set down to write her a note before falling asleep himself. Waking up in a strange place, Judy struggle to remember the events from the previous evening. Reading the note, she realized that the last mammal she ever expected to see had found her instead.After breakfast Tuesday morning, where Judy had dropped the bombshell that she had been homeless for the past three years, the four of them take a trip to the local free clinic in Tundra Town where Judy can be examined ([Ch 3](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191682/chapters/45622897))._

_At the clinic Judy struggles to fill out the paperwork, letting slip to Hugo and Meredith that she goes by another name these days – Jessica Lapine. He has to leave her in Meredith’s care while he attends to another doctor’s patient. Judy is examined by the duty nurse and then talks to a nutritionist about her diet. The doc comes in last, and gets her started on a treatment for hypothermia and pneumonia ([Ch 5](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191682/chapters/45800998))._

_As Hugo returns to her room, the nutritionist instructs him on Judy’s care. Hugo takes a photo of Judy, and then leaves to called her mother with the good news that at long last the lost bunny has been found([Ch 7](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191682/chapters/46069705))._

_Overwhelmed by the news, Bonnie and Stu are unable to talk to Hugo, leaving the difficult task to their daughter Beth, a professional social worker, to get the details from him ([Ch 9](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191682/chapters/46714759))._

_Hugo returned to the Clinic examination room where he and Judy had a tense confrontational moment that passed as soon as it began, and afterwards he reveled why he was forced to abandon her at Cliffside. Later after Judy had passed out from exhaustion and stress, Hugo discovers more about Judy past life on the West coast than he ever expected ([Ch 11](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191682/chapters/46841548))._

_Hugo struggles to understand the enigma that is Judy Hopps and to reconcile what little data he has about her life. Lacking clarity, he sought focus and tranquility though Tai Ji meditation. Judy woke from her nap and wrestled with her own terrible demons. Left at an impasse in her own mind, she followed a tantalizing scent she hasn't experienced in years and it leads her to witness something she had never known about Hugo. On the basis of her new experience, she comes to a fateful decision. She would stay ([Ch 13](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191682/chapters/47069986))._

_Judy awoke Wednesday morning to the smell of baking apple, but before eating she luxuriates in her first hot shower after three long lonely years on the streets and alleyways of Zootopia. After breakfast, Hugo took her shopping to replace what she had lost, and she began to experience powerful and conflicting feelings toward her former doctor. Prompted by an emergency message summoning him to the Tundra Town Central Hospital, Hugo is forced to leave Judy with his trusted friend and little fox, Homeless Counselor Fennick Zerda ([Ch 15](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191682/chapters/47348653))._

_Forced into the role of babysitter, Fennick quickly figured out what’s really going on with the rabbit and who she really is. Being the one fox every mammal trusted with the truth, Fennick was unable to decide what he should do with that information now that he’s met Judy for the first time, so he invites her to met with the homeless kits he mentors, where she displays the depths of her life experiences. As he came to understand just who she is, he in turn worked to help her find her start to own place in this new world ([Ch 17](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191682/chapters/47762263))._

_Meanwhile, Hugo had arrived at Tundra Town Central Hospital to examine his partner’s new patient, a homeless and naked goat with severe head trauma. As they struggled to understand what the patient had gone through, the blood work reveled the presence of a new contagion, one that Hugo never expected to ever see – that of Dawn Bellwether’s lost biological warfare weapon. Shocked by what they have seen, they are forced to deal with a savage patient attacking every mammal in sight ([Ch 19](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191682/chapters/48058699))._

_Alerted to the medical crisis, Chief Bogo and the ZPD SWAT arrived to contain the situation, and he is accompanied by the newest rabbit member to the ZPD Night Howler Task Force, Interpol Special Agent Chi Daman. Hugo works quickly to bring the newcomers up to speed on the dangerous situation at paw, and in doing so realized that they were not prepared for what was coming ([Ch 21](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191682/chapters/48673301))._

_Since Hugo is busy with the ZPD, Fennick is forced to feed the rabbit dinner with his mate and her friend Skye. He thought he could pull a prank on her by introducing her to an arctic fox, but the jokes was on him since it turned out that Skye was in fact Judy’s long lost lover from her time on the west coast. As the vixen and the rabbit spent some time getting reacquainted, Fennick and his wolf lover put all the pieces together ([Ch 23](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191682/chapters/49343240))._

_Judy got to know Skye's bike and Skye in turn got to know Judy's troubles. At the hospital, Hugo talked to Emmi about discovering Judy, and how his Grandmother living 2000 miles away knew where to send him to find his long lost patient. They made plans for a welcoming home party for Judy on Thursday night, and then Agent Daman sought out Hugo's advice on how to deal with crusty Chief Bogo and the sly Sargent Wilde ([Ch 25](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191682/chapters/49837580)). _

_Judy finally got to go riding with Skye after eight years apart, while Nick was across town hunting for a mysterious homeless rabbit he thought he saw Monday evening. Finnick took some very pretty pictures of some very pretty females in the sunset, but after Judy caught him in the act they quickly came to understand that there is a hidden side to each other. After the motorcycle ride, the mammals returned to the Tundra Town hospital where Hugo got to meet Skye for the first time, and Skye was not sure she could tolerate the feline’s competition for her rabbit’s heart. Finnick finally brought his friend the coyote Professor Cheryl Silverheels up to date, and back at Hugo’s place Judy figured out how to make her cat purr in the night ([Ch 27](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191682/chapters/50385311))._

_Hugo woke up Thurdsay morning with a nearly naked Judy still in his arms. He tried desperately to groom her, but found her fur not to his tastes. He still made an interesting discovery, a set of divots that had been drilled into her skull long ago and since healed over. But Finnick called and interrupted his exploration, so Hugo leaves to go talk to him about Skye, Cheryl, and the power of legends. Meanwhile, Judy worked her way through a very strange dream ([Ch 29](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191682/chapters/50760079)). _

_Judy’s dream turned into a nightmare about Bellwether, and going savage, her paws stained blue. She woke with a start, relieved to see that she was still sane. She got in search of Hugo and more blankets, finding him in his office talking to Fennick. She's directed to his bedroom closet, and there she makes some discoveries about her caretaker’s particular bedroom proclivities. She used that as an opportunity to find out more about her host and rescuer, the irony being that he sought to know about her as well ([Ch 30](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191682/chapters/50836036)). _

_As they talk to each other in his bedroom, Judy and Hugo found out how they kept missing each other over the years. After Hugo went out to get her new clothes, Judy followed him downstairs and ended up having an other-worldly experience. After Hugo rejoined her in the light, Judy convinced him to teach her about his family mystic beliefs, and Hugo agreed to show her the Ritual of Healing ([Ch 31](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191682/chapters/51313558)). _

_Across town, Nick journeyed to the ZPD headquarters to see his partner Wolfard and show him last night's souvenir from Nick’s hunt. He briefed the old wolf on what he find, and they decided to go visit an injured cat for more information. But before they can leave, they were intercepted by Chief Bogo, who instructed Nick to properly brief Agent Daman Friday morning, and over Nick's objection, Hugo as well. He told Nick that because of what happened at the Tundra Town Central Hospital the day before changed everything, and so now Nick must change as well. Meanwhile, down in ZPD Central Holding, Duke Weaselton's day started out boring, but after a visit from a mysterious fox it definitely didn't end that way when a battered gang member in his cell went savage and tried to kill him ([Ch 33](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191682/chapters/53936803))._

_Back at Hugo’s basement, Judy and Hugo sit down to his grandmother’s ritual to summon the Lord of Death, and this moved Judy to bare her soul to him. Nick and Fennick had a short chat while Wolfard drove his partner to the Tundra Town Central Hospital. Fennick talked with Cheryl in her office, and they are visited by two nurses seeking wisdom. At the end, Hugo provided Judy with some much needed support, and she rewarded his efforts with a bombshell ([Ch 35](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191682/chapters/54752257))._

**_For she is Dawn Bellwether’s Favorite, heir to the power crazed lamb’s empire of blood and madness._ **

* * *

**Deep in the Meadowland Mountains**

John Wyeld and Joshua Bitter Snows stood for a moment just outside the lobby doors, fox to coyote, waiting to be buzzed in. They had driven over to their destination in the back seat of their taxi without a single word exchanged between the two canines. John sat with a frown frozen on his muzzle, while Joshua’s own face alternated between a sneaking smirk and flashes of fear. But by the time they had arrived at the New Horizons latest laboratory, far to the north of the city and tucked deep in the Meadowland Mountains, Joshua had settled on a brittle and regal air.

John just snorted to himself, laughing at the foolishness of youth. Now that they stood before the doors, the wind whipping the falling river spray about the building into a fine and constant mist, Joshua’s facial fur sagged under the weight of all that gray moisture, and instead of a looking like a royal prince he simply looked the miserable pauper.

_T_ _he wolves that guard this place, do they pity the cub?_ John mused to himself. _Did they recognize that his proud face was just a mask to conceal a coward’s heart? Or did they envy him for his relationship with their_ _a_ _u_ _gust_ _master? Perhaps_ _did they_ _dream_ _in their ambitions_ _of_ _rep_ _lacing the youth,_ _and stand at t_ _heir master’s_ _side_ _?_ _No._ _That shan’t be their fate._ _Not them, these f_ _oolish creatures, these hired goons. Wolves in form only, no true b_ _eta_ _s among them, none that dared to truly p_ _onder_ _what their master dreamed about, in his_ _cold and_ _lofty spire._

The door buzzed and swung open slowly, John stepping through as soon as the crack was wide enough to admit himself. He disliked the chill mountain drizzle of this place, his lungs contracting painfully as they sought to expel the dank air and drink in the lobby’s warmth. He shook his head, water whipping of his ears, and brushed the clinging dew from his coat sleeves on to the alabaster floor.

“You’re late.” The voice behind him rumbled like a slow landslide.

John turned and address the low pitched speaker, “We were accosted by a ruffian who escaped ZPD custody while we were trying to leave. The officers perforce fell over themselves in apologizing, and then tried to make up for that lapse in manners with reams and reams of paperwork.” He stared up at the large sandy-gold wolf, his combat armor pristinely polished in stark contrast to his grizzled fur, tarnished after years of fighting petty battles in pointless wars. He towered over the shorter fox, looking for all the world more hyena than wolf, lacking only the twisted sense of humor and crazed laughter to complete the image. No, he didn’t image that the Chief of Security for this particular facility had a sense of humor, and it all the years he had worked with him, he had never once heard him laugh.

“He’s expecting you.” The voice rumbled again, his scarred muzzle barely moving as the words slid out between the sharp ivory teeth.

“Isn’t he always?” John offhandedly remarked as he strode over to the elevators. He wanted to be free of this place, and the sooner he was removed of his charge, the sooner that he could make that happen. His skin crawled in to be confined once again inside these walls, the sterile effluvium of the cast concrete abrasive to his nerves. He had spent too many years confined here to be nostalgic about this building, years spent as patient, then prisoner, and then finally hostage. Hostage to the mad power dreams of other mammals, dreams he never sought or shared but to which he was bound, body, mind, and soul.

The elevator dinged, and the door slid open. John stepped briskly through the threshold into the steel cage and spun smartly back, his paw automatically seeking the buttons. He frowned out the empty portal at Joshua, who had suddenly lost his feet. He stood rooted to the gray granite tile, as if he had stepped in wet concrete and forgotten how to walk. He stood there, staring not at John, but at the railing that ran around the inner perimeter of the elevator carriage, his paws gripping his arms until the claws sank below the fur, disappearing into flesh.

The door began to to close, forcing John to stab at the door-open button. As the doors began to reopen, he drolly observed to the young coyote, “I can just tell him that you decided not to see him? I’m sure he’ll take that in stride, don’t you think?”

Joshua eyes snapped up from the railing they had been boring holes through and locked on to John’s with a look of pure loathing. John smirked, as he waved his paw towards the empty space beside him. Joshua sullenly shuffled into the elevator next to him and turned to face the door. John pushed the button for the top floor, and stood silently next to the young coyote as the doors began to slide closed.

* * *

**Tundra Town Central Hospital – Clawhauser’s room**

“Hey, hey, hey! Some officers will do anything to avoid a patrol, ya know? What’cha do, Benjamin? Slip on a banana peel?” Wolfard sauntered through the recovery room door.

Benjamin tried to laugh, but he just ended up coughing instead. He lay back on his bed, clutching his chest lightly, “Owwww… Don’t make me laugh, Wolfard. Please… It just hurts.” He gasped.

“That’s wolves for ya, Benji. Always the sensitive types.” Nick observed coolly as he followed Wolfard through the open door. He held up a paper bag, “Here, we brought you a couple of donuts. Figured you might be sick of hospital food already.” He held it up to Benjamin grasping paw.

“Thank you,” The cheetah whispered, as he drew a twist out of the bag, and nibbled on the end. He sighed in pleasure.

Wolfard sat down on the overstuffed chair and spoke again, “Seriously though. What’cha do this time? Fangmeyer kind glossed over the details.”

The cheetah flicked his eyes over Nick’s eyes, “Bogo told us to come down and talk to you about it.” Nick told him, as he climbed up onto the end of the bed. “What happened?”

“The chief sent you?” He asked them, to which they nodded, “Okay… It’s still all kinda confusing to me, but… Okay.” Benjamin took another bite of his coveted doughnut, and began his story.

“It all started with what sounded like a case of petty vandalism, the kind that teenagers do on a dare or too many drugs. Run into a garage, smash a few headlights, and run out before they get caught.” He paused for a moment and then continued, “Except that it wasn’t. It was a homeless mammal having an episode. Even so, I figured it was a job for a uniform, not me. It wasn’t until the chief pulled me in and explained the mob angle that I agreed to take the case.”  
  


Sitting back, his paws tucked behind his head as he relax, Wolfard piped up, “Mob angle?”

Benjamin shrugged, “I suppose, if you can call it that. The low rider truck that got dented belonged to one of Mr Big’s bears, Raymond I think it was. He was kind of annoyed by the dents, so he complained to his cousin Captain Snarlov, who passed it up the chain to Bogo. Who gave it to me. And here I am.” He waved his paw about the room.

“What?” Wolfard threw up his paws, “Is that it? You just magically crack yer ribs or something?”

“Huh? Oh... No sorry… Um… Where was I? Um.. Anyway, I got here to talk to Mr Goat, except that he was sleeping, so I figured that I might just wait until he woke up, except this cute nurse doe came over and yelled at me to leave, and I told her that it was okay, and we could talk to Dr Wiedii when he got back, but...” Nick interrupted with a moan.

“Oh, Gawd… Of course he’d have to be involved with this! Why me?” Nick bellyached.

Wolfard snickered out his nose, “Face it, fox. You and he are headed to an epic confrontation, and I’m starting to wonder if I should start selling tickets, maybe sell some popcorn, ya know?”

Nick turn 90 degrees to growl at his partner, “You, sir, are an asshole. You know that, right?” he asked him. Wolfard laughed.

“Wait? What? You don’t like Hugo?” Benjamin asked them both.

Wolfard shrugged, “I think the cat’s alright. It’s Nick here with the problem.”

“Why? He’s a cutie!” Benjamin objected.

“Huh?” Nick looked at him, “Cute? No, he’s not!”

“You like him?” Wolfard asked the cat.

“Ohh… goodness yes. He’s adorable! If I wasn’t a happily married cat, I’d love to have him climb all over me with those claws of his!” Benjamin gushed.

Nick shuddered and turned away.

“What? A cat can fantasize, can’t he? Beside, didn’t he help save you?” Benjamin turned to look at Wolfard for confirmation.

Wolfard nodded, “Yeah, but that’s not it...”

Nick threw his paws up in the air, his frustration finally getting the better of him, “It’s the DAMN rabbit, that’s what!”

Benjamin looked confused, “What rabbit?”

Wolfard answered for a steaming Nick, “You remember the CI from Prey First? That’s her.”

“Huh… Isn’t she dead or something?” Benjamin asked them.

“Yes! She DEAD!” Nick bit out. Wolfard shrugged and nodded.

“Then what’s the problem, exactly?” Benjamin asked Nick.

“It’s not so much what she was, but rather who Nick didn’t tell about her death.” Wolfard explained. Nick grunted.

They both turned to the sound of resignation in Nick’s voice, “A long, long time ago, she was a patient at Cliffside. Hugo worked with her, and apparently he got quite attached to her. He was devastated when she disappeared after getting released, and he spent years look for her. Years.” He looked up at the cheetah.

“I didn’t want to tell him how far she had fallen, what horrible things she had done with the Prey First movement, and most of all I didn’t want to tell him how she died. I didn’t want to crush him, not after he worked so hard to find her.” He sighed, “I thought it was a small mercy, letting him hope. Except...” He trailed off.

“Except that you’re too honest a fox to let it go.” Wolfard gently reminded him.

Bitterly, Nick agreed, “Yeah. Every time I would see him, he would babble about how he had searched this city or that, and how he had talked to her mother, and, and… Oh, gawd...” He sat up and turned to face them, “I would stand there, as he would go on, and I just had to bite my tongue. I wanted to tell him the truth, but the longer I kept silent, the more painful it got to watch him hope. And eventually I couldn’t stand it, and I started to avoid him.”

“Avoid him?” Wolfard noted, “You were an ass!”

“I know!” Nick yelled, “Damn it, I know! I know...” He sighed, “I owe him everything, and now I don’t know how to face him...”

Gently, Benjamin pointed out, “Well you don’t have to face him today.” He pointed out at the hospital, “He’s not here today.”

“He’s not?” Wolfard asked.

“No,” Benjamin shook his head. “He’s got a former patient visiting today, according to Doctor Muskat. He’s supposed to be spending the day with them.”

“Well, there is that, then. A reprieve for the condemned!” Wolfard smiled at Nick.

“Yeah, great! A single day’s commutation What, so I have time for a last meal?” Nick growled.

Benjamin was lost by their interplay, confusion evident on his face.

Wolfard tossed out, “Sure! Why not? Since he’s not here, your day can’t get any worse, can it?”

**CLANG!!!! Buuuuuzzzzzzzzzzzzz……………..**

The door to Clawhauser slowly swung shut, cutting off the sound of feet running down the corridor. Puzzled, Wolfard slid out of his chair and walked quickly over to the door. He pulled on the handle, but the door stayed resolutely closed. He turned back to look at his partner and asked, “What the hell?”

Nick sat up as comprehension dawned, and along with it a spurt of fear. The other two officers strained to hear his stunned whisper.

“Lockdown…!”

* * *

**Meanwhile, Back at Hugo's Place in the Snow Hills**

Stunned, Hugo’s jaw dropped open. Judy swallowed and nodded in again affirmation to her claim. He tilted his head in denial, and she only responded by down looking at her paws as her ears fell. He was stunned that she would admit to being the architect of so much pain and suffering; his patients, his friends, even his own personal pain.

His eyes narrowed as a rage built inside him, his ears going back and his shoulder’s tensed. Judy caught the change in his movement, watching his claws slide in and out of his paws as he fought for control. But when he slid his laptop to the floor silently, his paws flexing, she knew her time had finally come.

She was ready, finally at peace, and if her death had to come, at least it would come from the paw of a friend. She closed her eyes and sighed, tilting her head back, offering him her throat. That movement of prey submission was enough to unlock his predator instincts, and his arm rocketed forward, to take what was offered, to abate his rage and end his pain.

He froze as a powerful voice rocked through his mind, forcing his claws to stop just millimeters from the rabbit’s offered throat.

The voice of his abula. His mentor. His priestess.

“ _ **GATITO! ¡Pare esto de una vez! ¡Deberías avergonzarte de ti mismo!”**_ She scolded him. “ _ **Be Calm, and put away your anger! You sit in Holy Ritual, bound to His Power and beholden to His Purpose! You are my chosen acolyte, and I expect better of you!”**_

Her voice rang in his ear, cutting through his rage, forcing him to heed her once more. His feral eyes dilated as he became aware of another presence joining the circle, a presence forming to his right, just beyond Poy’Ya, the Moon. The sage of truth. The path of wisdom in the darkest of nights. It’s candle flared with new power as another sought to add their essence to the circle, not penetrate or pervert, but to strengthen the Ritual of a Thousand Tears. Something only another member of El Orden del Señor de los Muertos Infinitos could accomplish.

The ghostly outline of candles sprung up around the outline of Dem Se Uk, The Past, the first of three ancient symbols that bound his family’s ritual circle of power to this plane of existence. Dark mists swirled above that symbol, coalescing into a cowled robe of black velvet, hung with beaded feathers along it’s hem. Under the dark hood peeked two wise and kind yellow eyes, gazing at him in a mixture of loving joy and tired exasperation.

The eyes of his Abuela.

She shook her head slowly, the fetishes hanging from her hood brim swaying gently. She spoke kindly now, in a whispered voice he more felt than heard. _“_ _Gatito, gatito… Put away your anger… Your feline passions blind your senses and muddle your mind… Let go, and embrace His_ _Wisdom_ _, just as he embraces you...”_ Her right paw slid out from her robe and pointed at Judy.

“ _She has come to you, at long last, at her_ _very_ _end... And what does she do,_ _now that she stands but an instant from Death_ _? Does she_ _cower,_ _hide, or_ _try to_ _lie to you? No, my gatito... She trust you_ _absolutely_ _and seeks to give you all! Her past... Her truth... Her sins... Nay, even her life, given freely unto your very claws...”_ His Abula smiled, her teeth stained with weary age.

“ _The measure of a mammal does not lie within the mistakes of their past, but within the choices of their future..._ _A future she has offered to you freely, and you must take that gift and use it wisely... Look beyond your own rage, and see what she offers you, gatito… Then ask yourself what you in turn can offer her...”_

A flicker of moment, a sound, a shrieking wail grew in his consciousness. His eyes dart to his left, to the symbol that lay just outside the circle beyond Suw, the herald of truth unto the people. The third anchor, the symbol with no name, for it was not yet. The unknown future that sought to consume them all, as above it formed a maelstrom of purple clashing energies and rent time-space. A wind howled from it, sick with madness and burning flesh. Death screaming in agony as sentient life itself died, for from the center of that insane hurricane a ringing demand pealed forth in a voice sick with rage and madness, a peon of ancient power and purpose turned to ash.

“ _ **...WHAT’S MY NAME?...”**_

Hugo’s ears flattened in fear, and he tore his eyes from the nightmare that threatened to consume his soul as he sought comfort in his grandmother’s wisdom, but she only shook her head. Her work was done now, and he must look elsewhere for help. She lifted left paw from beneath her robe to point at the symbol behind Hugo. He turned his head to the right, away from the nightmare vision, back to the symbol just behind him, and he beheld Night!

He quailed at the vast emptiness that sat just above X’ti, the second anchor, the Present, and it was filled with darkness incarnate.

He fell backwards, screaming into the inky depths.


	2. Flashback: Before The Dawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Judy has finally found Dawn, but before Judy can get her alone it seems Dawn wants something from Judy first. Can Judy deliver without blowing her cover? Across town, Nick is battling with grading student papers at the ZPD Academy, but his night is interrupted. Will his grades ever get finished? And at the Tundra town Hospital, Hugo is trying to find a missing patient. Were does an unconscious wolf go?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I know this has been a long time in coming. I've been distracted, and I've not had the time to dedicate to this craft. That, and I had a bit of writer's block trying to figure out what Hugo was doing in all of this. But that plot has been nailed down, and suddenly the words just started to flow. 
> 
> So with out further ado, here is the next chapter of Judy's journey into the heart of darkness.

**_Previously on[The Measure of a Mammal: Flashbacks](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191682/chapters/45624730)_ **

We flashback to 13 years ago when Judy first met Doctor Hugo Wiedii while she was a patient-inmate at Cliffside, serving out her sentence for the murder of coyote astronaut and activist Carl Latrans. Hugo has just finished his neurology degree from the Zootopia Memorial Medical University, and is doing his post-doc work with The Zootopia Mammal Health and Welfare office. He has come to the Cliffside Asylum to try new and experimental treatments with their younger patients where traditional methods have failed. Arriving on his first day, he first meets with Administrator Swinton, but their tour of the facility is interrupted by Judy's bi-weekly escape attempt. Judy is captured by Hugo as she attempts to flee the orderlies, and Hugo chooses her as his first patient. (Ch 2)

Hugo is running a group art therapy session for his chosen group of patients. He instructs Nurse Manchas on how to deal with a misbehaving goat, and turns his attentions to Judy's art group. Seeing how far her progress has taken her, he arranges for her to have a very special visitor. (Ch 4)

As a reward for her continued progress in his class, and the end of her escape attempts from confinement, Hugo arranges for Bonnie to come visit Judy for lunch. Once they are done, Judy spends the rest of the period sketching her mother. Afterwards, Bonnie pleads with Hugo for help. (Ch 6)

Hugo meets with his boss and post-doc advisor, Doctor Donny Pahin. They discuss the current status of Hugo's project at Cliffside and the 15 patients that Hugo is recommending for transfer. Judy is the 16th patient that Hugo wants to transfer, but Donny feels that is going to be a harder sell. As their meeting progresses, Donny is concerned when he sees discrepancies between Hugo's reports and the reports from Administrator Swineton. (Ch 8)

Hugo shows up to the door at Cliffside the next day only to be shown the door on his way back out by Swinton. He goes back to talk to Donny about being kicked out like a stray cat, and his boss brings in the ZPD's first fox officer, Officer Nick Wilde, to help. (Ch 10)

Judy celebrates her 18th birthday at Cliffside. Being sent someplace against her will, she panics and is drugged to unconsciousness. Waking up in Bunny Burrow, she has to figure out if this is real or just a hallucination. (Ch 12)

Judy receives a Cotton wake up visit. Bonnie and Stu meet with the Bunny Burrow Sheriff. Later that night, their Doctor swings by to check up on Judy. Waking from a fevered dream, Judy has something she has to do, if she could only remember what it was. (Ch 14)

Judy spend the morning helping her mother clean the house. Afterwards, Judy, Beth, and Cotton all hike to the Carrot Days festival. There Judy stands up for herself, hears a story about Gideon, and beats up some bullies. Along the way she makes a mistake that will haunt her for the rest of her life. Later, finding herself at odds with her father and mother, she decides to leave. Her sister Beth tries to get her to stay, but their encounter with each other only leads to pain and recrimination. After Judy leaves Bunny Burrow, Bonnie asks the rest of the family what they intend to do. (Ch 16)

It's been a year since Judy left Bunny Burrow behind. She's taken on a new identity, a new job, and a new capybara roommate. At her roommate's art showing, Judy has a fateful meeting with a photographer, and this gives her roommate some concerns. (Ch 18)

Judy goes to a photo shoot with Tony for a very special client: Skye Cycles! While she there, she meets a very special arctic fox, and extends her an invitation for a date. They go ridding, and experience a very magical moment together. A month later, Judy drops by for some dancing, and learns the fox's real name. Two months after that, Judy has a very bad dream, and she finds her vixen is far more understanding than she ever realized. (Ch 20)

For her 31st birthday, Skye takes Judy camping down along the Big Sur coast. While Judy surfs, Skye explores the beach, and encounters something sacred. Returning home, Skye is confronted with loss, and Judy must step up. In the end, their relationship changes, even as it defines their lives forever. (Ch 22)

Hugo searches Gateway Bay City after Judy has a fateful confrontation at Dee's. While he searches, she attempts to drown her sorrows at the bar. Looking for a way to make some quick cash as a solution to her housing problem, she decides to try her luck at the strip club. Hugo's search for Judy is fruitless, but in a final stroke of irony, they come within shouting distance of each other, only to be turned away at the last minute by powers beyond their keen. Their paths diverge for now, but all too soon will they be brought back into the conjunctions of fate. (Ch 24)

Sergeant Wolfard and Corporal Wilde are out on late night patrol, shooting the s*** and trying to stay awake. Wolfard tries to pass on some wisdom, Wilde counters with some knowledge, and they both end up going to Wild Times looking for burglars. They get jumped, and spent the next few days recovering. Meanwhile, on the West Coast, Judy has branched out to the video side of things, and finds that it's not what she thought it would be, but she still makes a friend along the way. (Ch 26)

Judy's in a good mood coming back from a photo shoot in The Angels City. She spends the afternoon with her black rhino friend Lance at his gym, and she ends sparing with a wolf. Later they retire to his flat for dinner while they watch a movie and cuddle. Meanwhile, on the opposite coast, in Zootopia, Nick is suffering from the after-effect of the bachelor party that Finnick threw for him. Wolfard comes in to help him fix his tie, and they bond over Wolfard's personal lose. After that, Nick attends a wedding - his. (Ch 28)

Judy gets a clean bill of health at the clinic, but as Lance takes them home, his migraine gets worse. Judy tries to help him find his medication, but she's unsuccessful. So she accepts help for another gym mammal, Benny the Hippo, who gives her something special for the big rhino. She leaves Lance to sleep it off while she goes off to a shoot. (Ch 32)

Lance collapses, and his roommate calls 911 in a panic. Judy and Carlos race to the hospital, but when they get there they have to contend with bad news. Later, Carlos drops Judy at her place, and she is forced to make some decisions. The cop arrive to investigate the going's on, and they come to their own conclusions. Eventually, Judy is left with no choice at all but to face the call of destiny. (Ch 34)

Judy finally makes it back to the city that she loved beyond time itself, Zootopia. She came back to finish the menace of Dawn Bellwether and her band of merry henchmen, but all she is left with instead is a mystery. At a loss as to where to begin, she falls back on what she knows and returns to the pole, seeking time to figure out a plan. But a month goes by, and she is no closer to finding a way to complete the mission that has defined two lives. Fate intervenes and she meets a mammal that will change the course of her life for ever. (Ch 36)

* * *

4 Years ago in the Sahara District at The Palms Club

Judy’s mind churned as she struggled to keep her face calm and controlled.

_DAWN BELLWETHER! The_ _grand psychopath_ _ic_ _bitch, right h_ _ere! Right at your_ _very_ _paw, Judy_ _Laverne Hopps_ _! I never thought I’d be able to get close to her, and_ _yet_ _here she is!_ _What Luck!_ _Somebody must be be looking out for Bonnie’s daughter after all!_ She reveled in her good fortune, but instead of jumping up and down in joy, she just took a little sip of her carrotini.

“J.J.?” Dawn Bellwether cooed to Judy, a query upon her brow.

“It’s my dancing name,” Judy indulged the ewe’s curiosity, playing out the line.

“Oh.” Dawn took a sip of her tonic and gin, and turned back to her curiously, “Not Candy or Crystal…?”

Judy laughed and shook her head. “No, just J.J. I like to keep things simple, ya know?” _Really simple,_ _like a slow knife slipped in between the ribs and a long final kiss to keep everything quiet in the dark_ _._ _I wonder what she’ll taste like,_ _as she gasps her last breath_ _..._

“Certainly, I suppose.” Dawn fiddled with her glass for moment, before she turned back to look at the slightly taller rabbit. “Do you like to dance?”

_This is too easy_ , Judy thought. She replied truthfully, “I love to dance!” She tilted her head back toward the private booths, “Would you like a private performance?” _Dark, private, and intimate. A mammal’s death should be intimate, even if they don’t really understand why they are dying._ Judy was already playing out in her mind how she would kill the ewe, right there in the club.

Dawn turned her head to look, but with a shake of her head she replied, “Oh, no… Not that, no.”

Hiding her disappointment to have her fatal fantasy dashed, Judy asked the ewe, “Oh, what did you have in mind?” as she took a sip from her carrotini.

“Well, I was thinking about Club Mynx, actually. It’s their small mammals night, and...” Dawn looked up hopefully at her.

Judy choked on her drink, her performance slipping as she fought for air. _NOT that kind of dancing!_ She realized. Club Mynx was a local dance club that catered to the younger LGBTQ crowd in Zootopia. _She doesn’t want a_ _lap dance_ _, she wants a DATE!_ Judy’s mind flopped around as she coughed and wheezed in front of the concerned looking ewe.

“Are you alright?” Dawn asked, worried.

Judy waved her down as she coughed into her paw, “Sorry, that… That wasn’t what I was expecting...” She took a deep breath.

Dawn leaned over and lightly put a delicate hoof on Judy’s black mini skirt, “I can make it worth your while.” She assured the larger doe.

_Absolutely worth my while!_ With a blinding smile, Judy locked her gaze back on the little ewe, “Oh no, dear heart, never fear. You had me at dancing!”

* * *

Night settled on the Zootopia Police Academy with a quiet stillness. Earlier that afternoon the latest class of police trainees had finished their last tests for the quarter, and the ZPD instructors still left on site were working well into the night to get every thing graded so that the students’ scores could be posted the next morning. Most instructors at the Academy had taken the easy route, for them at least, choosing to administer multiple choice questions that were easily scanned and tabulated. But a few instructors took a more personal touch, one that required more effort on both the student as well as them, but that act gave them more satisfaction in the end, or so they believed.

Corporal Wilde was one of those instructors, doing a tour at the academy while he recovered from the effects of an on-duty injury, teaching crime scene procedures to potential rookies. He liked to think he brought an air of calm professional responsibility to his office, but that attitude was in truth being strained by all the distractions available to him that night. He tried in vain to concentrate on the pile of ethics essays on the old oak desk in front of him, but his ears kept twitching as new sounds carried up out of the darkness to titillate the edges of his perception.

The calls of late night revelers gather in groups across the plaza below his window reverberated through the window behind him as those students enjoyed their mutual freedom and sought out new libations to celebrate. He was also sure that he could hear the high pitched squeaking of bed springs through the HVAC vents, as two students somewhere in the building enjoyed a more interpersonal approach to stress management via vigorous extracurricular activity. As a good police instructor, he frowned at the blatant breach of ZPD regulations for a moment, considering tracking down the source of that sound for a blast of righteous ire, but he finally let out a chuckle. He had too much work yet to complete this night, and chasing after wayward trainees playing hide the salami would just put him that much further behind.

He turned back to his pile of papers, tuning out the distractions as he settled in. Or at least he tried. A cough from the entrance to his office caused him to pause. He sighed, and set down his grading pen. He ran his paws through his head fur before sitting up and asking, “Yes?”

“Yo, teach. You got a moment? I need to ask you something.” a male voice graveled across the threshold from the dark hallway.

Nick smirked as he recognized the voice. He hadn’t expected that particular mammal to show up tonight, but upon further reflection he wasn’t surprised. The particular male in question must be truly desperate if he was coming over now, at this time of night. “Go ahead.” He waved his paw about the room, inviting the speaker to continue.

The male made no move to enter Nick’s office, but stood just outside the doorway. The voice continued, “Well, gee, teach. I came up to ask if I could do some extra credit or something, before the final grades get posted.”

Nick snorted and shook his russet head, “A little late for that, don’t you think?”

“Please?” The voice whined, “I didn’t do so well on the last test, and I think I kinda bombed this one too.”

“Really?” Nick replied ironically. He knew this particular male abhorred writing, doing anything and everything in his power to avoid doing it.

“Yeah. But I really need to pass this class, and I was wondering if there was something we could work out.” He tried to sound earnest.

Nick’s smirk grew into a leer. He leaned back in his chair and gestured with both paws down under his desk, “Well, you could blow me. That might help.”

“What? How?” The male sputters.

Nick grinned as he explained further, “It’s simple. You get down on your knees here in front of me, unzip my fly, and show me how well you can suck it!”

The male mammal walked out of the hallway, and started opening cabinet drawers at random, searching through them for something. His eyebrows cocked, Nick asked “What are you doing?”

The wolf male turned back to the confused fox to clarify the nature his questing search, “I’m looking for a magnifying glass!”

“What? Why?” Nick gaped at him.

“Well, if I’m supposed to blow it, I have to find it first, yah know?!” He pointed out.

Laughing, Nick hurled his pen across the room and nailed the wolf in the back of the head. “Hey! Watch it! No blue on blue friendly fire, please!” Sargent Wolfard admonished his younger protegee.

“Find it, my ass!” Nick gave his partner the single barreled salute. “What the fuck are you doing here, old wolf?”

Wolfard turned to look at him, “What? Can’t an officer come check on his crippled partner?” He closed the drawer full of files that he was pretending to examine, and slid over to take one of the consultation seats before Nick’s oaken desk.

“I’m not crippled, you lazy excuse for a fireplace rug. I get the cast off my leg in a week, ya know.” Nick impatiently explained to him.

“I was referring to your mental capacity, Slick. I mean, look at ya. Just turned thirty and already you’re stuck behind a desk. What, the streets too hard for a little fox or what?” Wolfard dug in like a tick.

Nick upped the anti with a double barreled salute. “Listen, Asshat. Me and the streets get along just fine, I will have you know.” Nick pointed down at the cast on his right leg, propped up on a stool hidden under the desk. “It’s fire escapes that hate me.”

“Well, yeah… Most cops think that when you say you got injured in the line of duty, it means you got shot by a perp. Not slipping on ladders and busting your leg. I mean, it’s kinda embarrassing, ya know?” Wolfard splayed his paw across his chest.

“You don’t say.” Nick almost snarled, “I hadn’t noticed all the shit that got laid on me over this by my fellow officers.”

“Oh, No!” Wolfard shook his head, “That’s not what I mean!. No, it was embarrassing to me! Look, I’m the wise old wolf here, and when my partner the redheaded numb skull kitling goes off and injures himself in the heat of pursuit, it’s a reflection of me and my training skills. It looks bad for me!” Wolfard tapped his chest.

“Fuck you.” Nick tapped his claws on the desk, “My heart bleeds for your reflection. It really does.” He cocked his head at the older wolf, “What, you get bored at Precinct one or something? You had to come all the way out the Academy to give me shit?”

Wolfard shrugged, “Well yeah.” He nodded, “That, and just wondering when I’m getting my partner back.”

“Well, that answer really hasn’t changed.” Nick opened up his desk drawer and pulled out a small bottle and a pair of tumblers which he set on the desk. He poured a dram of fireball whiskey into each, and put the bottle back. Passing one tumbler across to Wolfard, he took a sip from his tumbler before elaborating, “One more week and I get the cast off. After that, six weeks of PT, followed by six weeks of light duty. That should carry me through the next quarter and graduation.” He gestured with his tumbler at the wolf, “You gonna be able to wait the long, you impatient old cooter?”

“Gawd, I hope so.” Wolfard leaned back in his chair, “You know Bogo’s got me down in Cold Cases, right?” Nick nodded. “Well, he shoveled off one of the first missing mammal cases on to my lap, and I’m kinda sucking hind tit on it. I can’t seem to make any progress on the case.”

“Will wonders never cease?” Nick set down his tumbler, “Sargent Wolfard, are you asking for help? My help, even?”

Wolfard ducked his head, “Ahhhh… Maybe? I mean, I missing something. I know I am. I just can’t figure out what it is.” He gestured at Nick, “I figured that maybe a fresh perspective might help or something, maybe see what I can’t seem to see.”

Nick sucked in his cheek for a moment before he finally let out his breath, “You want me to look over what you got?”

  
“Could you? Please? I don’t really want to go back to Bogo and say I can’t find the little bugger either. I mean, just how hard is for one little otter to disappear?”

“Actually, otters can be slippery little bastards.” Nick observed.

“So can foxes.” Wolfard laughingly added.

“Great minds think alike and all that?” Nick looked across the desk at his old partner, a cast of irony clouding his brow.

“I guess?” Wolfard leaned forward. “Please?”

**BUZZZZ…. BUZZZZ….**

But before Nick could answer Wolfard’s plea, his paw-phone began to ring.

* * *

Tundra Town Central Hospital

Hugo was visiting a brain trauma patient of his in the neurology treatment wing at TTCH. The hoary marmot had fallen off a ladder at a construction site, and his boss had brought the dazed and confused rodent in for evaluation. After running him through the standard battery of tests, Hugo had diagnosed him with a moderate concussion, and was in the process of outlining a treatment when the wall mounted speaker crackled to life.

“Paging Doctor Wiedii, Paging Doctor Wiedii. You’re needed in the ER immediately, Doctor Wiedii.”

Hugo frowned momentarily as he crossed over to the wall mounted phone. Climbing the small mammal ladder set underneath the large console, he reached up and quickly dialed the ER duty desk. Putting it on speaker, he waited for the duty nurse to pickup.

“Emergency.” A calm female voice answered.

Hugo greeted the nurse, “Isabella, I’m with a patient right now. What do you need?” He inquired patiently, looking back at the two waiting marmots.

On the other end, she quickly apologized, “I’m sorry, Dr Wiedii, but Dr Saseum needs you to do an evaluation on a male wolf that just came in, a pedestrian accident victim. The patient is in and out of consciousness, but when he wakes up he’s combative and non-verbal. The orderlies have him restrained for right now, but Dr. Saseum is feeling a little out of her depth and really wants your opinion.”

“What preliminary tests has she taken?” Hugo asked her.

“Well, she’s done the blood draw already for a tox-screen which has been sent up to Hematology, and he’s just gotten back from his CAT-scan.” Head Nurse Isabella Monte explained on the other end.

“Alright, tell her I’ll be right down.” He hung up the phone, and turned to the two waiting rodents, “I’m sorry. Where was I? Ah, yes!” he pointed to the patient, “We’ll keep you here for just a few more hours, just to make sure there aren’t any other issues, but I think you’ll be able to go home soon. However, if you see any floating spots or experience strange tastes in your mouth, call us immediately, please.”

He turned to the other marmot standing by the bed, “He’ll need to rest at home for a couple of days, but after that he should be able to go back to work.” The older male nodded as Hugo backed out of the room, “I’ll be back once I’ve talked with Doctor Saseum.”

Hugo turned and hurried down the long white hallways to the ER wing at the other end of the hospital. Arriving a few minutes later, he sought out Nurse Monte, “Hello, Isabella. Where is the patient?” He asked pleasantly, looking up at her seated form.

She stared back down at him dumbfounded, “Uhh...”

“Doctor Wiedii!” A female voice called to him from down the hall. Hugo looked up to see a female tusked deer in green scrubs hurrying up to the nurses station. “Did you not get the message?”

“Um???” Hugo was confused, “Of course I got the message, Doctor Saseum! I came as soon as I could!”

“No, I mean why did you order another CAT-scan? He’s already had one! We don’t need another.”

Hugo stared up at the slightly taller female, “Uhhhhh… I didn’t order another scan. What? Are you sure?” He asked her, not believing what she was telling him.

“Yes!” She put her hooves on her hips as she stared down at the obtuse little cat. “Two orderlies came down to take him, and I asked them if you had sent them and they said yes! What do you mean you didn’t order another scan?”

“I did not order anything! I was with a concussion patient just 10 minutes ago when I got the call. I have not even seen a chart, much less a patient, and I sure as hell would not order one blindly.” Hugo’s speech became pronounceably more formal as he got more and more perplexed by the situation. He turned to the ibex nurse and ordered, “Call Radiology please, on speaker phone.”

Isabella quickly punched up that department, and Hugo and Doctor Saseum leaned in.

**RING…. RING…. Click…**

“Radiology, this Candy speaking. How can I help you.” A soft feminine voice purred on the other end.

“Ah! Technician Candice Concoloris. Um...” Hugo wasn’t expecting to hear her voice on the other end. _This is awkward_ , he thought. “Um… I didn’t see you on the duty roster tonight...” He stammered.

She laughed, “Oh, Dr Wiedii. Really? Have you been actually been checking the duty rosters? I’m touched, really I am.” She teased him. Doctor Saseaum picked up on the tone and looked up at Isabella who sagely nodded back.

Hugo looked up at the two female ungulates smiling down at him. “What? It was one date!” He muttered. He grabbed his whiskers in frustration, “Please Candy, I’m trying to be professional here.”

Her voice light, she asked “So you’re not asking for another date?”

Completely flummoxed now, Hugo stammered, “No! What? No. Yes! NO! I don’t mean that!”

“Really, Doc?” Her voice purred low through the speaker, “That was all kinds of confusing. Do you talk to your patients that way?”

Hugo looked like he wanted to bite something, but with a deep breath and a long exhale, he got himself back under control, “It’s about a patient. Doctor Pavati Saseaum’s patient actually. She’s standing right here, Candy, and she’d like her patient back. A pair of your orderlies came and picked him up and...”

“Wolves!” Pavati brightly interjected. He looked at her, his brow furrowed. “The orderlies were wolves.” She added again, “They were really muscular, really fit!” She waved down at Hugo’s trim form, “I mean, if you like that sort of thing.” She pointed out to the glowering cat as the female puma on the other end of the phone giggled.

_They are making fun of me!_ Hugo snarled inside. _ARRRGHH! Madre DIOSA!_ _Why were they always picking on me?_ _I haven’t done anything wrong!_ _I don’t understand females!_ Turning his head back to the phone, and ignoring the light in their eyes, he primly addressed Candice, “Yes. They were two wolf orderlies, and they came and took the wolf that was here to have another CAT-scan that he didn’t need and that I didn’t order and I think it would be best if they just brought him back down...”

Candice broke in, her voice suddenly confused as well. “Wolves? I don’t have wolves working with me tonight, Doctor Wiedii.”

Suddenly the laughter died at the nurses station as the two females there looked down at the phone speaker. Hugo asked her to confirm this, “You don’t? Whose on duty then?”

“Ralph and Jed.” Candice answered.

“The moose siblings?” Hugo asked again.

“Yeah,” She explained, “We’re kinda short staffed during the night shift, so I like to have bigger orderlies around. But I don’t think there are any wolves on the rooster for tonight.” Her voice faded into the background as she called away from the phone, “Hey Ralph! We got any wolf orderlies working tonight?”

Another phone rang at the nurse station and Isabella leaned over to pick up the line. She quietly spoke into it, quickly glancing back at Hugo and Pavati. She held up her hoof and gestured to them, “It’s Hematology, Doctor. They’re calling about the wolf patient’s blood sample.”

Hugo gestured at the speaker, “Conference them in, please.”

She pushed a couple of buttons on the console and set down the receiver. She nodded at Hugo.

He announced himself, “Hematology, this is Doctor Wiedii here...”

A curious voice on the other side interrupted, “So this is your patient’s sample?”

Hugo looked back at the doe standing behind him, “Well, mine and Doctor Pavati Saseaum. What’s wrong with the patient’s sample?”

The male on the other end replied, “Well, we can’t type it. And the glucose is off the charts. Are you sure it’s supposed to be blood? I mean it looks like blood, and the nurse who came down to swap it out said you had a problem with the draw...”

Hugo turned to look at Pavati, “What problem?” to which she just shook her head in negation.

Candice’s voice broke in, “Hey, so Ralph looked up tonight’s duty roster, and there aren’t any wolves on duty tonight. He recognizes all the names, and swears not one of them is a wolf, so...”

The Hematology tech came back with, “You sure of the that? Cause it was a wolf who said the sample was bad, and gave us this one...”

_Glucose?_ Hugo thought, a cold look of dawning realization falling over his face, and he quickly interrupted the tech, “The sample! What does it smell like?” He demanded to know.

“Smell? That’s not a test we do, you know? Sniffing blood is a great way to pick up pathogens, ya know?” The tech pointed out.

Hugo asked more politely, “Please? It’s important.”

The tech reluctantly agreed, “Okay Doc. But if I get feline leukemia or canine distemper, you’re gonna have to explain it to my boss...”

Isabella piped it, concern etched on her brow as well, “Dan, you’re a hog. You can’t get sick with either of those. Please, we need to know...”

“Well, okay. Fine. It’s just the thought...” Clinking noises could be heard, and some quick sniffs, “What the Hell? This isn’t blood!”

“What is it?” Three voices asked simultaneously.

“It’s grape juice!” He sniffed again, “Grape juice from our cafeteria even!”

Candice broke in from the other side, “How can you be sure?”

Dan expounded at length, “My porcine nose knows, ya know! It’s got that metallic musty smell like it’s been sitting in the can for a month out in sun, stewing away...”

Hugo held out his paw purely on reflex, but Dan wasn’t there to see the command to stop, so he verbalized further, “Thank you, I think we get it.” He turned to Isabella and commanded her, “Call Director Rargyra right now!” She quickly punched up the security desk number and added it to the conference call.

“Security, Director Rargyra. I’m two hours past the end of my shift, and I would appreciate it if you mammals could please let me go home now...”

Hugo briskly broke in on the bovine’s bellyaching.

“Directory Rargyra, we have a problem!”


	3. Thursday Morning: A Call for Help

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Agent Deman takes a moment to get in some katas before meeting with the Mayor. Judy makes a desperate plea for help. Nick tries to figure out what's going on at the hospital. And Hugo bears witness to something strange.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been three months since I last posted, and I know most of my fans have given up all hope (looking at Dakzoo) and all I can say is to that is that I am truly sorry. I have not abandoned this story, I promise you. I enjoy writing it far too much. My life has simply gotten more complicated and busy, and the hours I need to sit down and write this epic have become elusive.

_The true origins of the grand city of Zootopia is a story lost to the mists of time and faded memories. Buried in a muddle of confusion, a mix of oral legends and poorly documented histories, written in over a thousand different mammal languages, each telling skewed even further toward the racial bias of the species that held on to their particular version of the truth. But shared in all those tales and myths was a singular theme, found hiding in plain sight in among all those varied truths common to prey and predator._

_The water hole._

_A place where predators and prey would gather, seeking to slake their thirst , for water, for territory, for control, for war, and eventually, finally, for peace._

* * *

**Zootopia Central Park**

Special Agent-In-Charge Chi Daman gazed out over concrete railing that ran along the city hall’s second floor balcony at the park that defined the cultural center of Zootopia. Here it was, local legend had it, that mammalian predator and prey had met to settle their ancient differences around a muddy watering hole, and in doing so sowing the seeds of peace and coexistence that would come to define the city that sprang up as a result of that agreement.

He had been so stressed by the event of the previous day that he had sought refugee among the green growing things, but even this early in the morning the central park teamed with busy mammals intent upon their day and too distracted to notice a small stripped rabbit trying to find a moment of peace. He had thought to perhaps explore the Rain Forest district some more, so achingly familiar to a rain forest rabbit like himself, but he simple didn’t have the time. He had a meeting to attend with Bogo at Mayor Swinton’s office in an hour, so he had to console himself with just a small patch of grass in the far corner of the city hall’s balcony.

He stood quietly under the shade of a large maple towering over him, it’s broad leaves breaking up the morning light into small rays of flickering light playing over his dappled fur. He had stripped to his waist, leaving his professional vestments folded carefully and placed on a bench. Standing in the grass, he breathed in deep the scent of moist loam and falling water, it’s rhythmic cascade lulling him into a deeper state of consciousness. He drew his paws together, crossing them in front of his chest, his eyes lidding closed as his head and ears slipped back. He slid gracefully from that start into his first kata, his paw sliding forward to form a fist as his other slide down to the ready at his side, his feet readily finding their place beneath his hips as years of practice eased his transition from busy investigator to Que Kun artist.

As he progressed further into his katas, he also dived deeper into his tam or center, his spirit growing further attuned to the rhythms of his body, his senses sharpening as he drank in the peace of the moment. He slide into the 10th form, the dancing crane, his arms flowing fluidly through the air as if they were wings soar upon great updrafts, but his ears missed the beat. They didn’t flow with the rest of him, but instead strained crosswise against his motion, jerking his head around.

His rabbit ears had picked up something faint, just at the edge of his consciousness, something that even they strained to perceived. He bent his head for moment as he concentrated on the sound, seeking to give it form and clarity. It sounded like a scream in the dark night, a cry for help against the poverty of hope. It was an animalistic shriek, as powerful as it was incoherent.

His eyes snapped open.

He turned his head to look at the other mammals who walked and lounged upon the broad balcony with him, to see if they too had heard the cry and were seeking it’s source. But they seemed not to notice, absorbed as they were in their discussions and devotions. He quickly moved to the railing and stared out across the broad plaza, but all seemed calm, just mammals moving about their business in the manner that they were most accustomed to.

He frowned, as he was certain that he had heard something. He stood, grasping the rail with both paws and closed his eyes again. Faint, fading, the scream died in whispering echos. He struggled to hold onto the call, concentrating on the voice of the mammal in need, reaching out to them with all the strength of his trained mind.

**BRRRRIIIIINNNGGGGG!!!!**

Jolted off balance by the unwelcome change in his _**tam**_ by the ringing of his cell phone, left on the pile of his clothes under the old tree. His irritation at the interruption quickly grew into an irrational anger that itched just behind his brow. He struggled to control the mounting rage over the disruption to his concentration, burning up from his gut, just as his grandfather had taught him so many years ago. He was a rabbit used to the complete control of his body and mind, long past the struggles of his youth and the horrible family legacy of violence and rage.

Pirates and warlords, assassins and smugglers. Criminals, the lot of them. Every one, except him. And yet, he could not escape his name, a name he promised his grandfather that he would carry always, even as the old buck lay dying in his arms, his lost wisdom bleeding from cruel wounds to stain Daman’s fur and soul.

Daman.

**D** **ã Man**.

_**SAVAGE…** _

* * *

**Hugo’s Home in the Snowy Hills**

Judy felt a whisper of claws upon her fur for just a moment, like the fluttering of a butterfly’s wing alighting on a flower, and then the sensation was gone. She breathed a tiny sigh of relief, for while she had accepted her fate at his paws, even if that fate was a swift death, she still preferred life. She wanted to stay, here and now, with him. But before she could gather her scattered thoughts, before she could utter any form of thanks or repentance for past sins, before she could even open her eyes, she was jolted out of her fur by a undulating screech, compounded by the sensation of hot fragrant liquid splashing across her face.

Shocked, she rocked back onto her haunches, her ears come up to full extension, her paws flying to her face as her eyes snapped open, her gaze quickly drawn to the writhing form of a cat in agony. Risking a quick glance down at the teapot, she saw that it had been kicked over, the tea inside dousing the flame of the lamp underneath it. She sniffed for a quick moment, realizing that the liquid upon her fur was the tea that he had prepared for her. She quickly returned her eyes to Hugo just in time to watch his eyes roll into the back of his skull and he fell backwards, collapsing on his mat. She jumped to her toes and scampered over to him, making sure that he hadn’t knocked over any of the candles with his jerking limbs.

_Nope, they’re still lit,_ she realized with relief. At least she didn’t have to worry about the house burning down around her ears while he convulsed in front of her. Avoiding the twitching of his limbs, the clutching and grasping of his paws in the air, claws extending and retracting in time to some god-awful beat that only he could hear. She looked down at his face, thinking that maybe she should try to put something in his mouth, to keep him from swallowing his tongue, but his jaws, filled with his sharp feline teeth, was clenched shut. _Forget it, Judy,_ she advised herself. _You reach in there, and you’re liable to loose your paw._

She slid back to her knees, just behind his head, her back to fireplace. She laid a paw upon his forehead and gently called his name, “Hugo…” The moment she touched him, his twitching ceased and his eyes closed, but he still didn’t respond to her. Concerned at the lack of response, and struggling to remember what to do when a mammal has a seizure, she slide her paw to the side of his neck, digging into his thick furn as she felt around for his carotid artery. _Fast and uneven… That’s not good! Um… Maybe I should call for some help or something, except that I don’t want to leave him here like this… Wait a minute, he brought down his phone with his laptop, didn’t he? Where is it?_

She hurriedly glanced around at the floor, and saw that he was laying on his open laptop. She skittered around to that side, and pushed on his sidewith all the might her weakened body could muster, as slight as that was, but it was just enough to roll him over. She grabbed his phone and flipped it over, frowning as she realized that it was locked. _I can call 911 with it, right? It’s supposed to allow emergency calls._ She lifted her paw and with a claw she reached down to the screen.

And froze.

_Shit, shit, shit…_ She realized. _I can’t call for the paramedics. This is gonna look really weird to_ _them_ _. The candles, the ritual_ _markings_ _, him being this respected Zootopia physician and_ _me_ _being a convicted loony with a_ _history of violence and the_ _habit of killing predators she doesn’t like. It would look really bad…_ She struggled to figure out how to explain it, and ran into a wall . _I can’t explain it. I can’t possibly explain this, especially since I don’t_ _even_ _know what the ritual is supposed to look like,_ _exactly_ _. Hell, I need somebody who knows him who can explain this all to me so that I can explain it to the dispatcher. Except that I don’t know anybody here like that… Just Meredith, Dale, Fennick…._

She bolted upright as she realized, _FENNICK! He’s know_ _n_ _the cat for years! I bet he knows all his history,_ _even_ _his medical history! Plus, he’s a street counselor – he’s gotta know what do in this situation._ _I’ll call him!_

Reaching across his now still form, she slide the phone under his finger pad. _Left or right? Which one is it?_ The phone dinged and the screen lit up. _Hey, hey, hey, Jude the Dude! What do you know, you got it right on the first try!_

She tapped on the contacts icon, and quickly scrolled down to Fennick’s listing. Stabbing at the connect button, she waited impatiently for the call to connect.

Brinng... Brinng… Brinng… Click.

“Yo! My Cat! What’s up?” A gravely voice called out of the speaker.

Judy’s breath exploded out of her chest in a rush. She hadn’t realized she had been holding it. She nearly screamed back at him.

“FENNICK, IT’S JUDY! PLEASE! I NEED YOUR HELP!”

* * *

**Clawhauser’s Room at Tundra Town Central Hospital**

His nibbled doughnut momentarily forgotten and his voice gone quiet with worry, Clawhauser breathed, “Nick… What’s going on?”

Nick’s ears perked up as he listed to the sound of rushing feet patter down the hallway, “I don’t know...”

“Drill?” Wolfard ventured.

“After yesterday?” Clawhauser objected.

Nick offered an option, “Maybe your goat friend got out again?”

“No way!” Clawhauser shook his head. “Doctor Muskat said they had him in a medically induced coma after they took out half his skull.”

Nick and Wolfard traded a look. Nick tilted his head at his partner and quietly barked, “Call it in.” Wolfard leaned his head over as he grabbed his shoulder mike and quickly called ZPD dispatch for more information. Nick jumped to his feet on Clawhauser’s bed and briskly walked to the wall at the cheetah’s head. Picking up the phone headset, he leaned on the call button until he got an answer.

“Yes, Sargent Clawhauser?” A breathless nurse responded.

“Sargent Wilde, actually. ZPD. What’s going on?” He asked in a no-nonsense authoritative tone.

“Oh, I’m sorry Sargent Wilde. We just got a call that the ZPD is bringing in another one for isolation, and the Hospital’s security director ordered the lockdown.”

“Another one? Another what?” He asked.

“Another Savage victim.” She told him.

Nick reeled slightly, reaching out to the wall to steady himself. His mind raced as he grasped the implication, _One victim is an anomaly, two victims is a pattern. Shit! It’s happening again._

Wolfard came up to the bedside to fill the fox in what he learned, “The vic, or perp, is some sheep ram was being held on grand theft auto charges down in central holding. Apparently he went berserk and tried to kill his cellmate.”

“Who was that?” Nick asked him.

“Just your friendly neighborhood two-bit con-artist, Weaselton.”

Nick put the receiver to his shoulder as he snorted in amusement, “Well, if I was locked in a cell with Duke for longer than five minutes, I might considered murdering the little rat too.”

Wolfard shook his head, “Not murder. He tried to eat Weaselton.”

Nick’s jaw dropped open as he stared back at the wolf. Flabergasted, he retorted, “Sheep are strict herbivores! They don’t eat any meat at all. They might trample you, but eat you?” He shook his head.

Wolfard shrugged, “That’s what the SWAT team said they saw just before they busted into the cell to take him down. They pumped him full of happy juice and stuffed him in the closest available prisoner transport.” He waved at the walls, “They should be here any moment now.”

Nick turned back to the phone and barked out, “Open the door!”

“Yes, sir!” The nurse on the other end obeyed. The door to the room buzzed and popped open. Wolfard immediately started for it as Nick hung up the phone. Turning around and leaning over a bit, he patted Clawhauser’s shoulder. “We’ll be be back, buddy.” He turned and jumped down off the bed.

“Okay...” Clawhauser mumbled, but he spoke up before Nick reached the door held open by Wolfard, “Nick?”

Nick turned back to look back at him, “Yeah?”

“Be careful.” Clawhauser jerked his head at the hallway.

Nick shrugged, “Hey, it’s just some ram off the streets they snagged off the street. How dangerous can they be?”

Clawhauser looked down at the smaller vulpine and he quietly pointed out, “That’s what I thought too...”

Wolf grinned as he assured the cat, “It’s okay, Benjamin. I’ll make sure he doesn’t get stepped on.”

Nick turned to look up at the taller wolf, and with a mock snarl he growled out, “That’s it… I’m gonna bite you...”

“ **BBBBBBLLLLLEEEEEEEAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”**

A haunting scream echoed down the sterile hallways.

* * *

**Somewhere Else...**

Hugo blinked. He didn’t quite believe what he saw. He blinked again, and scowled. That wasn’t the ceiling of his meditation den above his head. No, it was most certainly a dark night’s sky, awash with twinkling pin pricks of colors and a broad band of milky white stretching from horizon to horizon. _The Milky Way_ , he thought, _but I’ve never seen it so clear before, not even back in my kitten hood_ _in the depths of the Amazonia jungle._

He turned his head to drink in the expanse of pure naked sky above him, the motion releasing esters from the rich loam that he lay upon, carpeted with mosses and lichens. His nose twitched as it sampled the scents in the cold night air, a hint of snow on the breeze. With the breeze came other scents he certainly recognized, and scents he truly did not.

Fox and hare, wolf and deer, cat and elephant. All familiar but strange, off somehow. And a nagging scent he did not recognize, buried in the scents of rendered tallow and wood smoke, a scent of stinging sweat and acrid urine.

He sat up and as he did so he glanced around himself, trying to get his bearings, the iris of his feline eyes expanding to drink in all the available light. He could see that he lay upon a short hillock that stood proud over an undulating valley, part of a much larger plain dotted with hills and ponds. Looking down he realized with a sudden start that he was nude. _Where are my pants?_ _I’m_ _completely_ _naked! And I’m certainly not in my home anymore._ Like the cat he was born to be, he quickly gathered his broad paws beneath himself and stood. He stared over the hilly plains toward the horizon which ended too soon, capped as it was by a enormous wall of gray and white. _Glacier_ , he though, _and it’s a big one. It takes up half the horizon._

A flicker of warm yellow light caught the corner of his eye and he turned to witness a strange sight, down the hill below his vantage point. At the base of his hill lay a small muddy pond, and on the banks of that pond a gaggle of small strange huts. They were strange affairs, round and dome like, made from looked like sticks and bone covered in reeds and hide. From them, drawn up by the night’s breeze, drifted the sick and oily smell of cured mammal hide. Bear, caribou, rhino… His nose quickly told him.

Guttural muttering and barking laughter came from the center of the ring of huts where a stubborn fire burned in the dark, and around that fire sat strange creatures, tall and long limbed, but robed in a strange patch work of furry hides and reeds. Their faces were flat and long, furless and encrusted with dirt and ash. They only seemed to have long spiky fur upon the top of their heads.

“What are they?” He asked the night, quietly, almost to himself.

_**Those that came before…** _The night responded to his query.

Hugo looked up to his left to watch the stars move to stand next to him. The suggestion of a great and powerful body formed as space time itself warped and wrapped into a being that Hugo knew, deep in his bones, to be none other than…

Lord Jaguar…

“Before what?” Hugo asked the towering presence.

The head bent towards him and two great yellow eyes, ancient and kind, beheld him.

_**Before all you know…** _Lord Jaguar rumbled

“Where are we?”

_**The beginning...**_ Lord Jaguar breathed once more.

A pale flicker of white danced across the far ice wall. Hugo looked up at the crack and crenelated surface rising above the hilly tundra. More ghosts appeared to dance in the ice, jerking and weaving across the face. _Is it getting lighter out?_ He wondered. He looked down at his feet and watched a shadow grow from his feet in stark relief to the brilliant green carpet that he stood on. _Que pasa?_

He turned around, looking for the source of brilliant light that was turning the deep night to daylight. There, far above him, in the night’s sky a pinprick burned. With each passing moment, it grew every larger, ever brighter, ever closer. As he stared up at the brilliant light bring tears to his sensitive eyes, moving swiftly across the night sky towards him, he could feel a growing heat upon his whiskers and a silence in his ears.

There was a pause, a blink really, when every living thing on that green plain seems to hold it’s breath as it watched with him as a second sun bloomed in the night sky.

The sky went white as the world screamed in agony.


End file.
